People have been asking us all winter what we’ve been doing to pass the time during the MLB lockout. I’ll tell you what we do here at MMO — we come up with ideas that not only help us stay busy, but will help you all stay busy, too.
Talking about the best teams and/or players in New York Mets history is always a good debate to have — especially during the cold winter months — but what if we created our own teams with players from different eras? That’d be fun, right? Well, we thought it was, and we think you’ll agree. We’ve created eight different Mets teams, all of which consist of a catcher, first baseman, second baseman, shortstop, third baseman, three outfielders, two starting pitchers, one relief pitcher, and a manager. We took the top eight at each position (as well as the top 24 for outfielders and top 16 for starting pitchers) with the goal of splitting them up across eight teams and making them as evenly matched as possible.
We used four players twice, given their multi-positionality: Edgardo Alfonzo (2B/3B), Jeff McNeil (2B/OF), John Milner (1B/OF) and Dave Magadan (1B/3B).
What we’ll be doing over the next eight days is introducing each of the squads and taking a look at their perceived strengths and weaknesses. Once that’s complete, the fun will start with some good ol’ fashioned Twitter polls so you can decide which ones would be victorious if they faced one another. We’ll open up the voting on February 8th, so mark your calendars accordingly.
The Squad
C: Ron Hodges
1B: Pete Alonso
2B: Tim Teufel
3B: Edgardo Alfonzo
SS: Francisco Lindor
OF: Yoenis Cespedes, Mookie Wilson, Steve Henderson
SP: R.A. Dickey, Sid Fernandez
RP: John Franco
Manager: Bobby Valentine
Strengths
The top seven in this lineup are all, for their Mets careers, above-average hitters. It’s one of the more balanced lineups of any of the eight teams we drummed up.
Mookie and Alfonzo are solid table setters up top, with big boppers Cespedes and Alonso behind them. Lindor could easily slide into the five-hole (where I, personally, believe he should be with the 2022 Mets) and Henderson behind him. That’s a solid top six with a nice blend of speed, average and power.
This team also has lockdown defense up the middle, with Lindor and Teufel as a double-play combo and Mookie Wilson manning center field. Alfonzo (who is being used as a third baseman here) is playing the lesser of his two defensive positions, but having Lindor’s range next to him makes up for it. Cespedes’ rocket arm in left ought to help with the speed of other teams, too, as will Ron Hodges’ defense behind the plate. Hodges is one of the better defensive catchers the Mets have ever had.
Weaknesses
While balance in a lineup is helpful, this squad’s bad day on offense–where Alonso and Cespedes aren’t hitting for power, Lindor and Alfonzo aren’t getting on base–can look real bad, especially when up against some of the best arms in Mets history. Teufel and Hodges–plus a pitcher–can shorten the lineup real quick, putting more pressure on the top six to get work done against, say, arms like Jacob deGrom, Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden.
Also, when compared to other trios of Mets pitchers on other teams, the combo of Dickey, Fernandez and Franco isn’t exactly the most intimidating bunch when you think of all the possibilities. However, there’s a nice balance between the three arms. On his best day, Dickey could make nearly every bat miss with his knuckleball, but things could go awry real quick for Dickey, too. Fernandez, with his power fastball and curve, and Franco, with his changeup, are both nice backups if something does go wrong, but this team can get behind the eight-ball fast with these arms. Then the offense might not have the depth to bring them back in a game.
Other Teams
